Tech, Autos, & Gear in Layman's Terms Since 2006

As promised the new version of NetNewsWire for iPhone and iPod Touch is now out and available for download.

Will it be my new RSS reader of choice? Read on in this first look…

Yes, it uses Google Reader as the underlying engine for RSS feeds. Setup is quick and the application seems quite smooth. The new version offers a brand new icon, syncs quickly and has a new, softer look.

It offers the ability to email articles, post to Twitter, send to Instapaper or open the full browser. All are nice functions and work well. Adding ReadItLater would be nice but clearly Instapaper is the dominant application for stripping images and reading text more easily on the go. Personally I use Instapaper in place of ‘starring” items these days.

The ability to expand and collapse folders is executed nicely and makes it easy to adjust the view and feel of the feeds.

Unfortunately, the “next” and “last” buttons remain at the upper right of the screen. But, and this is a huge but, a “Next Unread” button now appears at the bottom. Ergonomically this is a great change.

In all it is a good effort and, considering NetNewsWire is free, there is little one can complain about.

Related

Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”)
Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him.

This looks like a great free choice! I will probably stick with Byline, but it’s nice to see other syncing RSS readers out there for the iPhone. In my mind that is the ONLY way to read your favorite sites on the go.